The larger-than-life head of World Wrestling Entertainment has not played a major public role in Linda McMahon's yearlong run for U.S. Senate. But with his empire being brutalized by Democrats, particularly this week, Vince McMahon is going on offense.

Blumenthal used Tuesday's final debate with Linda McMahon in New London to question how she ran the company and treated workers. Meanwhile state Democrats are raising questions about steroid abuse among wrestlers and whether WWE programming is degrading to women.

The last straw for Vince McMahon apparently came Thursday, when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee launched a new ad -- "Linda McMahon. A bad CEO. A worse Senator."

"Current negative criticisms concerning WWE from some groups would seem to be inconsistent and hypocritical," read the statement.

Then late Friday, Vince issued a public invitation to First Lady Michelle Obama, who will campaign in Stamford Monday for Blumenthal, to visit WWE headquarters.

"Given President Obama's previous appearance on `Monday Night Raw', and WWE's dedication to giving back to the community, we welcome the opportunity to speak candidly with the First Lady and educate her about WWE's initiatives that focus on children and families," McMahon said in the statement.

A few weeks ago WWE announced two major events -- a fan appreciation night in Hartford on Oct. 30 and televised matches in Bridgeport on Nov. 2, election day.

WWE spokesman Robert Zimmerman Friday said the matches are scheduled at least 18 months if not longer in advance. But asked about the timing of fan appreciation night, Zimmerman noted: "We're in the area. WWE wanted to thank our fans for the support and putting up with everything that's been said about the company and sticking by us and putting on a fan appreciation show."

The DSCC and Blumenthal had similar responses to the WWE's charges of hypocrisy.

"As the CEO of WWE, Linda McMahon oversaw violations of safety standards, tolerated steroid and drug use and inserted `death clauses' in workers' contracts to avoid responsibility for their deaths," DSCC spokesman Deirdre Murphy said. "McMahon was a bad CEO, she would make an even worse senator, and there isn't a press release in the world that changes that."

And Blumenthal campaign manager Mindy Meyers argued WWE is fair game because McMahon is running for Congress on her experience as an executive.

"It's clear that she consistently put her own profits ahead of people," Meyers said.

But Irvin Muchnick of California, a wrestling writer who has been critical of WWE during McMahon's campaign, said: "There absolutely is a lot of hypocrisy there" Politicians have been eager to appear on her programming when they thought it was to their advantage."

Another longtime wrestling writer, Bryan Alvarez of Washington, said: "They ran a bipartisan voting campaign and when you run that both sides are going to support and help you. And when your wife is a candidate now for the Republican side, I don't see why it should be a shock the Democratic side is going to jump all over you."

Don Hooton, a registered Republican and president of a foundation that works to educate youth about the dangers of steroids, on Friday said it was "absurd" for WWE to claim politicians who support the company's voter initiatives condone the entirety of its operations.

Hooton and Muchnick said the federal government has dropped the ball on issues of steroids in sports. In early 2009, for example, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, concluded steroids remained a problem in professional wrestling. But his report wound up in limbo.

"We need to be challenging Dick Blumenthal if he's elected and his colleagues to stand up and do something about this problem," Hooton said.